Blog Feed

First version of Lessig talk available now

Jennifer Earl — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:53:41 -0700

In case you missed Rob adding it to the site, we have posted the first version of audio and video we are releasing of Lawrence Lessig’s Distinguished Speaker Series talk. This first version includes video of his slides synced to the audio from his talk.

Launching new website

Jennifer Earl — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:35:05 -0700

Welcome to the new CITS website! It has been a while in coming, but we are thrilled about launching the new site today. Rob Patton, the CITS Program Manager, and Quilted, the design firm we hired to design and build the site, have put in massive amounts of work, and I think it shows!

Studying the Relationship Between the Internet, New Media and Politics.

Jennifer Earl — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Message from the Director

In a heated primary season and Presidential election year, it’s easy to see the importance of studying the relationship between the Internet and other new media and politics. Whether the use of You Tube videos in presidential nomination debates or the growing sophistication of campaign websites, it is clear that how campaigns, and political figures more generally, connect with supporters and challenge opponents is changing in the face of the increasingly pervasive presence of the Internet in everyday American life.

Summer Gray - Graduate Student Profile

Rob Patton — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Summer Gray is a first year Ph.D. student in Sociology interested in the study of the social dynamics of emerging technologies. She is particularly interested in developing a deeper understanding of the relationship between technology and society as it relates to issues of gender, race, and class. Summer is a graduate of Pomona College's interdisciplinary Science, Technology and Society program and she spent the past year working with inner-city youth through a nonprofit program aimed at empowering young women through science and higher education.

August Black - Graduate Student Profile

Rob Patton — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

August Black is a third year PhD student in the Media Arts and Technology department. August is an artist, researcher, and developer of new software tools and instruments. His research and praxis is based in the general overlap of culture, craft, and code. He was once resident artist at UCSB's BioImage Informatics Lab, researching in the areas of volume rendering, multimedia database applications, and high resolution tiled display systems. August is an avid proponent of free software.

New look for the CITS website

Jennifer Earl — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Hopefully you noticed the new look of the CITS web site last quarter. This newer design is one step along the way toward a larger redesign of our web presence. The revisions to the site include a much expanded video archive, hosted through blip.tv (profiled in our last newsletter). The front page also has limited RSS capabilities so that changes on our main page can be pushed to your favorite RSS reader. And, classes relevant to the Technology and Society emphasis are now listed on the front page as well.

Katy Pearce - Graduate Student Profile

Rob Patton — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

In a recent interview, second year Communication grad student Katy Pearce stated that, "there is a huge gap between technology use (both amount and type) in the U.S., Europe and Asia versus the developing world...For me, comparing the social implications of technology between countries is very interesting...Specifically, I am concerned that there will be a point soon that people in developing countries won't be able to catch up." Katy's experience demonstrates that she walks the walk with regards to understanding the implications of tech use.

Veljko Pejovic - Graduate Student Profile

Rob Patton — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

The son of two mathematicians, Veljko Pejovic always knew he would enter into the "family business" and go into academia. Growing up in Serbia, he attended a high school which had an emphasis in the sciences, and later went to the School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. After spending some time in California and talking with friends who had positive experiences, he chose the UCSB Computer Science department because of its strength in computer networks and distributed systems.

Nicole Starosielski - Graduate Student Profile

Rob Patton — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Talking with Nicole Starosielski you get the sense that the third year Film and Media Studies (FMS) grad student has a head-start on us all. She explains that she chose UCSB because of the fantastic FMS faculty, but comments on the strength of faculty across the campus as a huge selling point. "The porous boundaries of this campus make it a place where theory-practice projects and cross-disciplinary endeavors can really take off." She likes the fact that she is a member of the first FMS Ph.D. class at UCSB.

The Road Ahead: Looking Forward to Putting the Lessons of the Past Year to Work

Jennifer Earl — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Message from the Director Jennifer Earl

Unbelievably, it has been a full year since I took over as Director of CITS. The time has flown by, with many new projects initiated, new friends and new associates made, and countless lessons learned. So, I thought I would start off this year’s newsletter with some thoughts about what has changed in the last year and what you might expect to see over the following year.